Figure 1.

Effects of the P-element insertion in UGT36E1. (A) Schematic organization of the 37B1 chromosomal region. Arrowhead indicates the position of the P-element inserted in the 5’UTR region of UGT36E1. (B) The P-element inserted in UGT36E1 (P-UGT36E1) affects sex pheromone discrimination in male flies. Tests were carried out either under red light (filled bars) or white light (empty bars). Each mirrored bar represents the mean (± s.e.m.) courtship index towards female (CIf) and male (CIm). Individual 4-day-old tester males directed towards female (right) and male (left) headless targets, simultaneously presented during a 5 min observation period. Tester males were homozygous (P-UGT36E1) for the P-element mutation, or wild-type (Dijon strain); target flies always belonged to this wild-type strain. Significant differences for male ability to discriminate between the two sexes are shown next to each mirrored bar as ***: p < 0.001; **: p < 0.01; *: p < 0.05 (Student’s t-test). Courtship data towards each sex were tested using ANOVA and LSD Fisher tests (letters within bars indicates significant differences towards each sex). For each test, the number (n) was n > 40 (under red light) and n > 30 (under white light). (C) The P-element insertion affects RNA expression levels of UGT36E1. The expression levels of UGT36E1, UGT36D1 and CG17597 were analyzed by real-time PCR. The significance of differences in the ratio of transcript levels was based on a comparison between wild-type and P-UGT36E1 homozygous mutant flies (in log₂ scale control = 0). Data represent the mean (± s.e.m.) of the expression ratio (mutant: wild-type) carried out with three independent extractions.